Mayor Rahm Emanuel, shown Oct. 10, 2018, at an event for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's regional vision, also attended a breakfast that day to thank City Council allies and issue checks to them to help with their re-election campaigns.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, shown Oct. 10, 2018, at an event for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's regional vision, also attended a breakfast that day to thank City Council allies and issue checks to them to help with their re-election campaigns. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued his “no friend gets left on the field” tour Wednesday, handing out $20,000 checks to more than two dozen City Council allies to help them get re-elected.

Emanuel hosted a breakfast at the 312 Chicago restaurant across the street from City Hall. Far North Side Ald. Joseph Moore, 49th, said he expected to enjoy a meal and a thank-you speech from the mayor to aldermen who backed Emanuel’s series of property tax hikes and other politically difficult votes.

Emanuel did thank them, Moore said, but then he also handed out $20,000 checks. Moore’s check was made out to his re-election fund, he said.

Moore, who’s facing a potentially difficult re-election fight, said he will use the money to help pay for his campaign.

Another alderman in attendance, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he, too, was caught off guard by the payout and said he might use the money to pay for community projects. “I just expected breakfast,” the alderman said.

In all, Emanuel paid out around half a million dollars to friendly aldermen. The famously capable fundraiser has millions of dollars in his campaign fund, money he said he would return to donors after his surprise announcement last month that he wouldn’t seek a third term.

Emanuel has pledged to go to bat for aldermen who have backed him for the past seven-plus years. He attended a fundraiser last month for Public Safety Committee Chairman Ald. Ariel Reboyras, 30th, who’s trying to get re-elected against Jessica Gutierrez, daughter of outgoing U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

“You got a great alderman,” Emanuel said at Reboyras’ fundraiser. “It’s up to you to make sure your neighbors know how good he is.”

Asked about his backing of Reboyras, Emanuel cited his mantra from his days as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: “No friend gets left on the field.”

Emanuel, who's unpopular in some parts of the city, might be able to best help re-election-seeking aldermen by cutting them checks and staying out of their way. While $20,000 isn’t a large outlay for the deep-pocketed mayor, it can make a big difference in a down-ballot ward-level race.

A close Emanuel adviser confirmed the breakfast and the fact that the mayor handed out $20,000 checks to more than two dozen of his aldermanic allies. A list of exactly who received the checks was not immediately available, although aldermen will have to disclose the contributions to state election officials within 48 hours of depositing them into their campaign funds.

“The mayor has a lot of money left over from his campaign, and he wanted to thank them for standing with him and making a lot of difficult decisions and taking a lot of difficult votes,” said the adviser, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the event. “It’s a sentiment you’ll see echoed in his budget speech next week.”

Ironically, Emanuel’s eighth and final budget may be the easiest for aldermen to vote on, as it’s not expected to contain any major tax increases or overhaul of city services, an occurrence that is not uncommon in an election year.

The mayor, though, has asked plenty of them in the past, as aldermen voted to approve a record $534 million property tax increase and a series of fee and fine increases necessary to shore up the city’s budget and stabilize its woefully underfunded public employee pensions. In the 2015 budget alone, aldermen passed $755 million in new taxes and fees at Emanuel’s request.

There were also other politically difficult votes, including the elimination of the ward-by-ward garbage collection and a major increase in water rates to rebuild much of the city’s sewer system.

For much of his tenure, Emanuel has enjoyed widespread council support and has not had to sweat out many close votes. Controlling most of the specifics on how and where the city’s money gets spent, the mayor has not been shy about wielding his power behind the scenes to bully and reward aldermen into supporting his initiatives.

At times, though, aldermen have sent a message, including in 2016 when Emanuel mustered the bare minimum 26 votes in passing up to $3.5 billion in borrowing for O’Hare International Airport. Many black aldermen voted no in protest of not enough minority contracts being awarded at the airport.

Emanuel long has been a prolific fundraiser, going back to his days working on predecessor Richard M. Daley’s 1989 mayoral campaign and former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. The mayor spent more than $27 million on his 2015 re-election bid and already had raised more than $10 million toward another run when he made the stunning announcement last month that he would abandon his bid for a third term.

In an interview after that announcement, Emanuel told the Chicago Tribune that he would be giving the remaining money back to his campaign fund to donors.

“I’m going to return it to everybody,” he said. “It’s theirs, not mine. It’s not my money, it’s their money.”

The Emanuel adviser said the campaign has been working on a formula to determine how much money donors will receive back since Emanuel spent some of the money. They all are likely to receive a flat percentage of their original contribution.

That pool of money is at least $500,000 lighter after Emanuel’s buffet of breakfast checks.